I know it's only been a little over a week but it feels like I've lived a
lifetiime since I last wrote you all. What can I say? Mission life keeps you
busy. I swear sometimes I wake up feeling exhausted, go to work, crash at
exactly 10:30 when we turn off the lights, blink, and do it all over again. It
sounds crazy, but I honestly love it.
When I got off the plane, I was kind of in a daze. Japanese airports are
familiar to me, so I had no problem going through immigration, baggage claim and
customs. I even felt right at home in the mission home as we ate taco rice for
dinner and talked about our families. It wasn't until the next day when we met
our trainers that the daze began to fade. We walked in the chapel and found a
line of missionaries. There were three sisters - two American and one Japanese.
I was told the night before that to have a Japanese companion was unlikely, so I
felt calm knowing that my trainer would most-likely speak English.
This is not the case. My companion's name is Ishida Shimai (Sister Ishida).
She's from Saitama, Japan, and has been on a mission for about 4 or 6 months.
She will be training me for the next 12 weeks. She's super sweet, and actually
speaks some English, so I'm not completely lost. Together we speak a mix of
all-the-Japanese-that-I-know and all-the-English-she-knows. This isn't much for
either of us, so we really do a lot of dictionary exchanges and body language.
So hopefully by the end of this transfer if I'm not fluent in Japanese, I'll be
a boss at charades.
The same day we met, we were assigned to the second coldest zone in the
Nagoya mission - Kanazawa. (I expect a package from home very soon containing
all of my ski gear. Please. It's COLD). This zone is composed of about 6 or 7
districts. I am in the Komatsu district with Ishida Shimai and two other elders.
The ward is ALL Japanese. They talk so fast, but are still very nice to me.
Haha, some of them don't really know how to talk to me, but with Ishida Shimai's
help, I think I'm making some friends. We do have some English-speaking
investigators, and we also teach English lessons every Thursday, so those might
have to be my favorite moments so far.
I honestly keep thinking that this is really just FUN. I keep telling God,
either I'm not working hard enough or I was misinformed - this is more fun than
it is hard. Haha hopefully He doesn't take this the wrong way and send me a
whole bunch of trials. Yeah, it is hard; I have no idea what's going on half the
time and all I know how to do is smile. But really that's all I need to know. I
just need to smile and be friendly (and probably study some) and let God take
care of the rest. I know He is looking out for me.
So my Disney reference this week goes to...the Lion King. More
specifically, "The Cirlce of Life". The missionaries have this ongoing joke that
when you finish your mission, you "die". This was pretty funny the first time I
heard it; "Yeah, that Sister died last week. I'm so jealous. I heard she's super
happy though." But yeah, basically as you near the end of your mission, you're
"going to die soon" and when you finish, you "die". This ties into my
reference;
"On the day we arrive on the planet" (or Nagoya, Japan)
"And blinking step into the sun" (We have no idea what we're doing, but we
just dive right in)"There's more to see than can ever be seen" (or more to study than can ever be learned)
"More to do than can ever be done" (Truth. There's never a moment where we don't have work to do)
"It's the Circle of Life" (or a mission)
"And it moves us all" (from transfer to transfer, area to area)
"Through despair and hope" (You're not a missionary until you've felt both
"Through faith and love" (Also unavoidable)
"'Til we find our place" (or are finally comfortable with opening our mouths)
"On the path unwinding" ("Straight and narrow", if you will)
"It's the Circle, the Circle of Life"
This is what missionary work is!!! It's a lifetime lived in two years. Right
now, I'm just in my first transfer (bean-chan, they call me), but I'm going to
study and work hard until I meet my father (earthly father that is, I hope I'm
not actually going to meet my Father anytime soon. I'd like to stick around a
bit).
Anyways I hope that amused you all, and I hope everything back home is
going well.
Your missionary,
Johnson Shimai
